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The Turnbull takeover

TONY ABBOTT: And if there's one piece of advice I can give to the media, it's this: refuse to print self-serving claims that the person making them won't put his or her name to; refuse to connive at dishonour by acting as the assassin's knife.

— ABC News 24, 15th September, 2015

Hello I'm Paul Barry, welcome to Media Watch.

And that was Tony Abbott last Tuesday blaming the febrile media for rewarding traitors and bringing him down.

And, as Australia recovers from its third political coup in just five years, it's worth asking: is he right?

Malcolm Turnbull era: Abbott blames 'white-anting, media conniving'

— The Australian, 16th September, 2015

Being an Australian political leader is certainly harder than it's ever been.

There are more polls, more commentators, and much more personal abuse.

Covering Australian politics feels more like conducting a triage of the wounded and slain. The bloodletting has become so brutal that party rooms have come to resemble abattoirs.

— BBC News, 14th September, 2015

But while most would accept that the 24-hour news cycle and our obsession with politics makes it tougher to lead most would also agree with John Howard that it wasn't the media who brought Tony Abbott down.

JOHN HOWARD: I do think that the major reason why the Liberal Party made the change was the state of the polls. I've said in the past that politics is relentlessly driven by the laws of arithmetic and I do think, if the polls had been different, even to a modest but measurable degree, then there may not have been a change.

— Sky News, 15th September, 2015

As Malcolm Turnbull pointed out in launching his challenge ... the Abbott government lost 30 News polls in a row.

ALAN JONES: You've said here, today that Turnbull has one big advantage over Abbott. The media and the Twittersphere have been absolutely feral ...

ANDREW BOLT: What Tony Abbott was undergoing from Twitter and the media generally was just unbelievable ... and as I wrote recently, you wondered how Abbott could ever win. Where people would make up stuff like or, you know, report complete falsehoods like ...

...he'd snubbed the gay partner of our ambassador to France when he actually took the bloke to dinner. You know, things like that. Joe Hockey being portrayed as corrupt on the front page of the paper. Their candidate in Canning, Andrew Hastie, former SAS captain portrayed falsely as a potential war criminal. I mean this is just absolutely extraordinary. I've never seen anything like it in my life.

— 2GB, The Alan Jones Breakfast Show, 15th September, 2015

There's little doubt that Fairfax was hostile to Tony Abbott, especially in the last few months.

But the Prime Minister had loud support from News Corp, which prints around two thirds of our big-city dailies.

Indeed back in 2013, its papers helped Tony Abbott defeat Kevin Rudd with headlines like these:

Abbott's tragedy is that he made too many mistakes and misjudgments ...

He never established an emotional rapport with the people.

— The Australian, 15th September, 2015

From the night of that first disastrous Budget in May 2014 it was clear the PM was close to the Telegraph and its team.

That's him with the editor Paul Whittaker.

And at the IPA dinner one year before it was obvious he wanted to be close to Rupert Murdoch too.

Indeed Abbott and his advisers' determination to play favourites led to Fairfax Media and others feeling shut out:

PHIL COOREY: I think like a lot of things under Tony Abbott even the media became combative and divided and, you know, he certainly just played to his supporters, if you like ... I don't want to be critical of my peers or anything but it was just blindingly obvious that, you know, the News Corp tabloids were completely, faithfully loyal to Abbott and I think it did him a disservice, to be honest, because everything went to them. It didn't bother me whether they were dropping them stuff or not and they would faithfully regurgitate.

— ABC RN, Media Report, 17th September, 2015

Tony Abbott was also on close personal terms with two of the country's most powerful media commentators: 2GB's Alan Jones and News Corp's Andrew Bolt.

TONY ABBOTT: Alan is a friend of mine. Andrew Bolt is a friend of mine. I think they are both very significant commentators and they've got a lot to say, as you know. Both of them have a lot to say. I often agree with it. Occasionally I don't agree with it.

— Press Conference, 6th June, 2014

Andrew Bolt repeatedly savaged Abbott's Labor rivals and was supportive of him right from the start, when the PM granted him his first extensive interview.

ONE ON ONE: BOLT & ABBOTT

We're not going to rush but we'll get it right, says Tony

Abbott a firm hand at helm of nation

— Daily Telegraph, 25th October, 2013

Alan Jones was also often fulsome in his praise.

ALAN JONES: In a world where loyalty is in short supply isn't it, what a performance by Abbott yesterday ... Loyalty, it's in short supply. Class act.

— 2GB, The Alan Jones Breakfast Show, 11th August, 2015

Once again, it's remarkable that Abbott was felled despite their support.

And it shows how little power they actually have.

Which is no doubt one reason why Jones and Bolt both raged last week against those who had brought their good friend down:

ANNA: Just one word for Malcolm Turnbull, Judas.

ALAN JONES: Judas, Judas, people not happy, the way it's done, I mean the way it was done was beyond belief. The way it was done, unbelievable.

— 2GB, The Alan Jones Breakfast Show, 15th September, 2015

But their dismay was as nothing to 2GB's Ray Hadley, who has welcomed Scott Morrison onto his show almost every week for two years ...

And who demanded on Friday that his old mate swear on the bible he had not been a part of the plot to bring Abbott down.

RAY HADLEY: Do you understand now that I think you misled me and my listeners on Monday?

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, I didn't Ray.

RAY HADLEY: Well there is a Bible there. Do you want to put your right hand on it and swear on that Bible?

SCOTT MORRISON: I don't have one mate and there is not one here and I don't see what my faith has got to do with it, Ray.

RAY HADLEY: Well, then it would be easier for people to believe -

SCOTT MORRISON: You get to judge my policies but you don't get to judge my faith, mate.

RAY HADLEY: No, no it would be easier for people to believe you if you were prepared to -

SCOTT MORRISON: I don't have to swear on a Bible, mate. I swear an oath when I take a Ministerial office. I swear an oath when I go as a Member of Parliament and that's where I do those things 'cause that's they're, they're they are serious things you do in our parliamentary chamber as part of our democracy. I didn't mislead you on Monday, mate. I haven't misled you at any time in our discussions over years.

— 2GB, The Ray Hadley Morning Show, 18th September, 2015

After Hadley abruptly ended the interview with his mate, mate, mate, Morrison told reporters at Parliament House he wasn't going to buckle to that sort of hectoring.

SCOTT MORRISON: I will not be bullied when it comes to my religion or faith. I was not bullied when I was stopping the boats by people smugglers. I won't be bullied by anybody in this place or outside this place.

— ABC News 24, 18th September, 2015

So ... how will these right-wing warriors go with the new PM?

Well, all have laid into Turnbull personally in recent times

Hadley has called him smarmy, a spoiled brat, a toff and an elitist snob.

Bolt has labelled him lousy, a fake, selfish, deceitful, arrogant and self-serving.

And Jones told him last year in a famous interview he would never be PM while trying to whip him into line:

ALAN JONES: Malcolm Turnbull, good morning.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Good morning.

ALAN JONES: Thank you for your time. Can I begin by asking you if you could say after me this, 'as a senior member of the Abbott Government I want to say here I am totally supportive of the Abbott-Hockey strategy for Budget repair'?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Alan, I am not going to take dictation from you.

— 2GB, The Alan Jones Breakfast Show, 5th June 2014

Shortly afterwards Turnbull told the media-as Morrison has now done-that he would not be bullied by shockjocks.

And by then he'd already taken aim at Andrew Bolt for accusing him of plotting against the PM, calling him 'deranged' and 'bordering on the demented'

MALCOLM TURNBULL: And I just have to say to Mr Bolt, he proclaims loudly that he is a friend of the Government. Well, with friends like Bolt we don't need any enemies. Thank you.

— Press Conference, 2nd June, 2014

So now Malcolm's in power, will he bother to woo them?

And does he need to?

Not according to Jones's biographer, Chris Masters, who told Media Watch:

Turnbull doesn't need to do anything to reach out to Jones or Bolt and that is what has them so worried.

— Chris Masters, 17th September, 2015

Top political lobbyist Sue Cato takes a similar view, asking:

Who are the Liberal conservative voters going to vote for if they hate Turnbull?

— Sue Cato, Cato Counsel, 17th September, 2015

And suggesting that Bolt, Jones, and others are also victims of regime change:

It does seem that we've got a much more moderate electorate than some of the conservative commentators think.

— Sue Cato, Cato Counsel, 17th September, 2015

Veteran ALP strategist Bruce Hawker, who was at Kevin Rudd's side through a couple of coups, echoes those views, telling Media Watch:

Leaking is probably more of a concern than what Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt might say.

PENNY-pinching millionaire Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull claims $10 from taxpayers when his wife comes to stay with him at his luxury Canberra penthouse.

— Daily Telegraph, 17th September, 2015

So how hard will it be for Turnbull to go the distance?

Well, harder than it used to be.

But it's worth remembering that leaking and plotting did not come down in the last shower.

PETER VAN ONSELEN: Look, it's a myth actually that this has only been a recent phenomenon. Yes, there has been more of it. There are studies into this with journalistic scholarship and there has always been unattributed sources that have been published and reported on. There's a proliferation of it because of the modern media age, there's more media.

— Sky News, 15th September, 2015

More media, more polls, more space to fill, and more and more opinion, as loudmouth commentators plug the gaps in the 24-hour news cycle.

And then there's social media where even more raucous opinions can be recycled by the mainstream media as news.